Phoenix office shooting: Suspect thought to have killed himself

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This image provided by the Phoenix Police Department shows an undated image of Arthur Douglas Harmon, 70 who authorities identified as the suspect, who they said opened fire at the end of a mediation session at a Phoenix office complex Wednesday Jan. 30, 2013. (AP Photo/Phoenix Police Department)

PHOENIX — Phoenix police said Thursday they have found a body that matches the description of the suspect in an office shooting that killed a man and critically wounded another.

The vehicle that Arthur Douglas Harmon, 70, was likely driving was found in a parking lot in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa. A body matching Harmon’s description was found nearby, said Sgt. Steve Martos, spokesman.

The person died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, he said.

Harmon drew a gun and shot both men at the end of a mediation session Wednesday morning at an office building in north-central Phoenix, police said.

Steve Singer, 48, died hours later. Mark Hummels, 43, with the Phoenix law firm Osborn Maledon, was in critical condition. A 32-year-old woman was also shot but suffered non-life threatening injuries. Harmon also shot at someone who tried to follow him to get his license plate number, authorities said.

“We believe the two men were the targets. It was not a random shooting,” said Sgt. Tommy Thompson, a Phoenix police spokesman.

Singer was the CEO of Scottsdale-based Fusion Contact Centers LLC, which had hired Harmon to refurbish office cubicles at two call centers in California.

According to court documents, Harmon was scheduled to go to a law office in the building where the shooting took place for a settlement conference in a lawsuit he filed last April against Fusion.

Fusion said Harmon was paid nearly $30,000 under the $47,000 contract. But the company asked him to repay much of the money when it discovered that the cubicles could not be refurbished, according to the documents.

Harmon argued Fusion hung him out to dry by telling him to remove and store 206 “worthless” work stations after the mix-up was discovered. Harmon said Fusion then told him that the company decided to use a competitor.

Harmon’s lawsuit had sought payment for the remainder of the contract, $20,000 in damages and reimbursement for storage fees and legal costs.

The shooting took place in the building where Pro tempore Judge Ira Schwartz, who scheduled the mediation meeting, has an office.

The response to the shooting centered on the building — home to insurance, medical and law offices — but soon spread to a north-Phoenix home and a central-Phoenix high-rise office building where Hummels’ office is located.

SWAT teams and two armored vehicles surrounded the house. Police served a search warrant to enter the house, which county property records show was sold by Harmon to his son last year for $26,000.

For a time, officers used a megaphone to ask Harmon to surrender, believing he might be inside the home.

Lois Allen, who has lived across the street from the Harmon home for about eight years, said she was startled to see all the police cars in the neighborhood.

She said she never met Harmon but had seen him walking a dog before.

The gunfire at the office complex prompted terrified workers to lock the doors to their offices and hide far from the windows. SWAT officers searched the building.

“Everyone was just scared, honestly, just scared,” said Navika Sood, assistant director of nursing at First at Home Health Services who along with her co-workers locked the entrances to their office.

Sood said police evacuated the office about 30 minutes after she first heard the popping noises.

Becky Neher, who works for a title company in the building, said she heard two gunshots.

“Someone yelled, ‘We have a shooter,'” Neher said. She looked out her second-story office and saw two people lying on the ground outside the back of the building.

The shooting took place on the same day that hearings on legislation to address gun violence were convened in Washington, with former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords testifying for stricter gun controls. A gunman shot Giffords in the head during a shooting rampage in Tucson in January 2011.

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Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Paul Davenport, Felicia Fonseca, Terry Tang and Walter Berry in Phoenix, and AP researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York

WASHINGTON – Hillary Clinton challenged Congress on Thursday to combat fake and misleading news on social media, using a post-election appearance to tackle an issue that gripped her presidential campaign and culminated with a shooting incident Sunday in Northwest Washington.